"When you know what someone has in your house," Tollens said, "Then there's always that possibility they can come by and say, 'Ok, we'll have confiscation,' that's what happened in Germany in the 1930s."

Many at the meeting agreed the second amendment of the US Constitution protects their rights to own any gun for any reason.

One man stood up and said, "I own an AR-15 because I can."

The crowd responded with thunderous applause.

Broome County Sheriff David Harder was also there to answer questions about the law.

He said he has thousands of "opt-out" forms being filled out to keep gun owners' registrations off the public record.

He said he's received no support from the state to compensate for the increased demand and workload for his office.

"There's all this extra work that has to be done, there's nobody to do it but us," Harder said. "The state's not giving us a penny and we've had to hire some people for the summer to help us catch up on filing."

Crouch told the crowd a repeal of the SAFE Act is in committee, but the Democrat-led majority in the chamber is unlikely to bring it to the floor for debate.